2 minute read
Historic Vehicle Gathering
Words and pics: James Webber
The Crash Box and Classic Car Club’s annual show, titled The Historic Vehicle Gathering, was a new show for me – and one I shall be returning to in the future. It was held in the grounds of the lavish Powderham Castle Estate near Exeter and was blessed with glorious weather.
Now, we all know that when the sun shines, it brings out people and their motors. But this was on such a scale it almost matched a national show. Well over 1000 individual cars attended, in addition to around 70 club stands plus a few stragglers in the public car park. Multiple food and drink caterers did roaring business throughout the day and a huge trade area
had everything from local companies and produce to auto jumble. Alongside trhe cars were motorbikes, traction engines, lorries, buses and just about anything else with wheels.
Cars were lined up in rows of two, grouped by their years – which gave visitors plenty of space to look around them. Clubs were further down and, depending on their size (I think the smallest had 25 cars on display), they took over the back end of the venue.
Expert marshalling was in place courtesy of the Exeter Sea cadets, who deserve a hats off for volunteering to do so in the sort of temperatures that really take it out of you. And best of all, tickets only cost £15 – which, with everything rising the way it is, was damn good value for money.
With this being the first Historic Vehicle Gathering since 2019, the club can be forgiven for taking a deep breath before announcing the date for next year’s. Check it out on Facebook or pay a visit to historic-vehiclegathering.info to keep tabs on that – you won’t regret it! CC
Above: How’s this for a cool stage? The Liberty Sisters were very much at home in the back of their GMC truck Below, right: Recently built Chevy 3100 pick-up turned up sporting a blown 5.7 litre V8 motor
Left: Stock and bagged trucks. See if you can work out which is which, children Above: Cadillac announced a few months ago that it’s going to build a new pick-up based on the Escalade. Will it be as cool as this one? Don’t be silly…
